Kott language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kott
Kot, Kottish
kottuen
Native to
Asan
Extinctearly 19th century
?
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3zko
zko.html
Glottologkott1239
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.

The Kott (Kot) language (

Yenisei river. It became extinct in the 1850s. Kott was closely related to Ket, still spoken farther north along the Yenisei river. Assan, a close relative, is sometimes considered a dialect of Kott.[2]

Geography

Kott was spoken to the southeast of Krasnoyarsk, in the Biryusa and Kan river basins. However, hydronyms indicate a much wider area in the past, ranging from the Uda and Chuna rivers in the east to the Tom in the west.[3]

Etymology

The term kott may be derived from Buryat qota 'town', applied to neighbouring non-pastoral peoples, including the last few Kotts.[4]

Documentation

One of the earliest written records of Kott is in 1791, with the publication of Peter Simon Pallas's Сравнительный словарь всѣхъ языковъ и нарѣчій, по азбучному порядку расположенный, a comparative dictionary of variuos world languages and dialects. In 1858, Matthias Castrén published the grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und kottischen Sprachlehre), which included material on the Kott and Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) languages, recording two different dialects of Kott.[1] There also exists two books written by Heinrich Werner [ru; de] about the Kott language, namely Коттский язык (Kottskij jazyk), which includes a 110-page Russian-Kott glossary,[5] and Abriß der kottischen Grammatik.[2]

Phonology

Vowels

In multisyllabic words, vowel length is phonemic.

Vowels in Kott[2]
Front Central Back
Close i [i] [ɨ])1 u [u]
Close-mid e [e] o [o]
Open-mid ɛ [ɛ] ɔ [ɔ]
Open ä [æ] a [a]
  1. [ɨ] is only attested in a few words dated to the 18th century, and can be considered an allophone of [i].[2]

Vajda 2024 gives a different vowel system for Kott, based off of Castrén 1858.[4]

Vowels of 19th-century Kott
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i [i] î [] u [u] û []
Mid e [e] ê [] o [o] ô []
Open a [a] â []

Consonants

Consonants according to Werner 1990[5]
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Laryngeal
Occlusive voiceless plain p [p] t [
t
]
tʼ [] k [k] q [q] [ʔ]
aspirated [] []
voiced b [b] d [
d
]
dʼ [] g [g] G [ɢ]
Fricative voiceless f [f] s [s] š [ʃ] x [x] X [χ] ħ [ħ] h [h]
voiced R [ʀ]
Affricate voiceless č [t͡ʃ]
voiced [d͡ʒ]
Nasal m [m] n [
n
]
[] ŋ [ŋ]
Approximant j [j]
Lateral l [
l] lʼ [
]
Trill r [
r
]
Consonants in Kott according to Werner 1997[2]
Labial Dental Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Laryngeal/
Pharyngeal
Plosive voiceless plain p [p] t [
t
]
tʼ [] k [k] q [q] ʔ [ʔ]
aspirated [] []
voiced b [b] d [
d
]
dʼ [] g [g] G [ɢ]
Fricative voiceless f [f] s [s] š [ʃ] j [j] x [x] χ [χ] h [h]
voiced
Affricate č [t͡ʃ]
Lateral l [
l
]
[]
Trill r [
r
]
Nasal m [m] n [
n
]
[] ŋ [ŋ]

Influence from Turkic

Kott had been influenced by

Proto-Turkic *paktïr (based on phonetics, likely loaned from Kumandin or Shor), or Kott kolá ‘copper, brass’ comes from Proto-Turkic *kola (of which the source is not phonetically identifiable).[6]
At the time of its extinction, it was also loaning words from Russian.

Grammar

Kott has special end markings to indicate that the noun being described is a hydronym which are -šet/čet.[2][1]

Kott typically uses SVO word order, and is agglutinative.

Case

Cases in Kott according to Castrén

Kott has 7 cases. The dative, ablative and locative cases developed from possesed nouns, similarly to Ket and Yugh.

Kott cases in Verner 1990[5]
  singular plural
feminine and

neuter

masculine inanimate animate
Basic -∅
Genitive =i =aː =i
Dative =iga =aːʔa =ŋa =iga
Locative =ihaːt =aːhaːt =ŋhaː ~ =ŋaːt =ihaːt
Ablative =ičaŋ =aːčaŋ =nčaŋ =ičaŋ
Instrumental =oː =oː =oː =oː
Comitative =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš)

References

External links